‘The little group is fading out fast’: Trump repeats 10% tariff warning for BRICS

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New Delhi: US President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his 10 per cent tariff warning for countries aligning with BRICS, calling the bloc a “little group” that is “fading out fast”. He said the group would end very quickly if they ever formed in a meaningful way.

“There is a little group called BRICS, and it is fading out fast. However, BRICS attempted to challenge the dominance of the Dollar and its standard. I said that anybody in the BRICS consortium of nations, we are going to tariff you 10 per cent, and they had a meeting the following day, and almost nobody showed up,” Trump said while speaking at an event.

Mounting his attack on the multi-countries bloc which also has India as its member, the US President said, “When I heard about this group of six countries in Brics, I hit them very hard, and if they ever really form in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly.”

Trump also said that his administration was committed to maintaining US Dollar’s global status as a reserve currency and vowed to never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency in America. “We are not going to let the Dollar slide… If we lost the status of the Dollar as the world’s reserve currency, it would be like losing a World War,” he added.

BRICS, comprising 10 member nations including Brazil, China, South Africa and India, have refuted the claim that the group is anti-American. During a recent BRICS summit in Brazil, leaders of the member countries deplored the US’ bombings in Iran and also criticised the Trump administration tariff mesaures, stating that unilateral coercive measures violates international law. Trump administration had on July 7 started sending tariff letters to dozens of countries as its 90-day freeze on sweeping duties expired on July 9. Trump had earlier said that the US will slap 100 per cent levies on BRICS if they try to replace the US dollar as a reserve currency in bilateral trade.